writer's block

I seem to have a hard time starting my blogs, or any form of writing for that matter (e.g. cover letters). I have millions of ideas in my head, will well constructive sentences, but once i'm in front of my computer, ready to type, poof, it's gone, like if those thoughts were a work of fiction. I admire people who can write interesting blogs or news posts. They have the knack of either starting their post in an interesting way, keeping their readers hooked or being able to impose the tone of the post within the first few sentences. They also manage to have a very rich vocabulary and seem to be able to express themselves in such colorful ways.


Being a former book work myself, one would think that I'll be able to pick up a few writing skills here and there. I guess I was dead wrong. I would stare blankly at my screen, for dozens of minutes following this algorithm:


1) start typing
2) delete a few words
3) retype
4) sudden flash of inspiration, edit post with more colorful and interesting structure
5) delete entire post because it's crap
6) repeat 1


Then finally, I give up. And then, one day, I get a sudden flash of inspiration, type and save. This occurs once every week or two. I should figure out how i get these flashes of genius and repeat it.

Tell me what you watch (on tv) and i'll tell you who you are: Monday part 2

So Mondays seems to contain alot of shows.. part 2!

Greek is the closest show to my reality. Rusty is the engineer underdog in the greek system. He is a genius in school but is socially awkward and has trouble fitting in, until he joins a fraternity. Then not only he manages to date several women, he even managed to date two girls at the same time (to his defense, he was trying to figure out which is the right girl.. and he choose right.. yay Rusty!), all that and still manage to stay in the honors program! Rusty is almost my counter part, replace the polymer science engineer with a computer scientist (beside, Eng and CS are almost the same.. ENCS). He has the perfect (almost) balance between being a geek and a frat brother, juggling between parties/keggers and his passion for engineering. I, on the other hand, sort of managed to juggle that, although it did result in a disastrous 1st semester.

Adventure, spy, geek/pop culture references is what Chuck is. College genius geek (i detect a pattern here...) drop out Chuck Bartowski has a super computer in his brain called the Intersect and is forced to be a Buy More employee by day and super spy by night. His handlers are stone cold John Casey and a ridiculously hot and equally deadly

Sarah. I think this is the adventurous in me talking, with a splash of geek pop culture (i'm not kidding, i think i'm a walking encyclopedia of random pop culture). The idea of going on secret missions, having a super computer in your brain which allows you to instantaneously have super kung fu powers or being able to hack a super computer. It's like having the Matrix plugged in your brain! All that and save the world while hooking up with ridiculously pretty girls (Kristen Kreuk being his latest.. DAMN YOU CHUCK DAMN YOUUU). Burn notice can also fit in this category (spy? check, stuff blowing up? check, guns and things go boom? check)

Castle is the mystery novel freak (book worm in general) in me. Ever since I was a kid, I loved mystery novels. By the age of 12, I read almost all of the Hardy boys and by 15, I read all of Chrystine Brouillet's book in the Roman + collection. Richard Castle is a successful mystery writer who has the writers blocks and decides to shadow a detective (who just happens to be an ass kicking and very attractive) using his mystery novel writing experience to solve crimes. He is incredibly witty and is still a child at heart (sometimes, it feels like his daughter is older than him). He has a wonderful relationship with his teenage daughter and is known as the "cool dad". That the future me who hopes that one day, I can have a smart daughter that knows the difference between right and wrong , who comes to me for advice and comforting.

Stay tune for part 3.. and more shows

Tell me what you watch (on tv) and i'll tell you who you are: Monday part 1

Wise friend told me the post was too long so i'll break it down in a series of post, separating by the day the shows airs. I have 5 shows which I religiously follow on monday so i'll break that in part.


Some people identify themselves in books, others in songs. As for myself, it's probably TV shows. I watch a ridiculous amount of TV shows (last count I think I follow about 20 odds shows?). Why do you ask? Because I have a lot of time to kill and I'm bored.. ok not really true (ok.. partly). The real reason is that TV is a form of escape from reality. Every show has an element of my personality which represents me, which is understandable since I seem to be an agglomeration of different personalities. In order to make this easier,   I'll only consider the TV shows that I have to watch every week and will break down if I don't.

Let's start with one of my all time favorite sit com, How I Met Your Mother. For those who have been living under a rock for the past 4 or 5 years, it's the story of 5 friends and how one of them met his wife. The setting is in Manhattan, which so happens to be one of my favorite city. Our protagonist Ted is a hopeless romantic, on an eternal quest to find his future wife. Marshall and Lily are a dysfunctional couple but yet somehow make it work. Robin is the resident gun ho proud canadian who loves her hockey and canadian roots. Finally, we got our AWESOME Barney with his wacky theories on picking up women and his quest of a perfect week. Oddly enough, each of these characters represents a part of myself: the hopeless romantic, the envy of having a relationship like Lily and Marshall (they still manage to have fun, do crazy things and not be a boring couple), the crazy hockey crazed canuck in me and the desire of being the super Barney with the suits, the bachelor pad, the storm trooper and the women!

Next is The Big Bang Theory, story of 4 stereotypical nerd/geeks with a ridiculously hot neighbor. As far as reality goes, none of those guys should be able to score a girl like Penny, yet Leonard manages to. Raj, Howard, Leonard and Sheldon are my inner geeks. Their obsession with Lord of the Rings, comic books, manga, gaming, all the nerdy stuff, that's me. Leonard gives me hope that I can one day find a pretty girl who accepts my geekiness and try to make an effort to enjoy and learn about the geek culture.

me, myself and i day (weekend)

The brother was in toronto all weekend, my parents are somewhere in the middle east doing touristy stuff. The house is empty, I'm the only one in here. What do i do? Throw a big ass party? No (pre and post clean up? HELLZ NO.. way too lazy for that). Went out till the wee hours in the morning completely hammered? No (i'm too old for this shit). I had some me time. Just me, myself and I. As much of a social butterfly as I am, sometimes it feels good to just be on your own. There is no stress to run and try to be on time for a gathering, no need to have some chit chat with other people. Just me and my thoughts.

It felt great to walk around the city on a beautiful sunny day, exploring parts of a city that I know so well. Granted I did spend the entire afternoon hunting for that ONE coffee shop that is not too crowded, yet not too modern but not too rustic with a couch. Something like Cafe Perk (see Friends) where I can enjoy a nice book while sipping a good coffee.

Is it so hard to find in Montreal? (ignore the lights on top)

After hours of walking, I found my secret hideout where I can hide away from the world with a book and my playlist. 

I really should do this more often.

je suis canadien///i am canadian...

Those 3 words (english and french) sums up the Vancouver ceremonies (both opening and closing). I haven't seen the opening ceremony and I've seen bits and pieces of the closing ceremony (I was busy watching Mythbusters blowing stuff up with explosives.. who doesn't like seeing Adam and Jamie blow a steak up with c4???) and I am going to say this: SHUT UP WITH THE I AM CANADIAN SHIT! It's fine to be proud of being Canadian, but they really took it over the top. Flying beaver, mooses, Michael Buble dressed in a Mounty uniform singing a song about.. CANADA, that was just cheesy and pretentious. I understand that we want to show everybody what Canada is all about but do they really have to use all the stereotypes? No wonder why people think we live in igloos and dress in red flanel shirts.. YOU ARE BASICALLY TELLING THE ENTIRE WORLD THAT WE ARE NORTHERN REDNECKS! Where is the multiculturalism? All i heard was native dancing and french quebecois people... where are the immigrants that was part of this country? Where is the history of Canada? 

I am happy that this is over, that was ridiculous

i should learn how to shut my big mouth

Throughout my entire life, the one thing that got me into so much trouble is my big mouth. I either blurt out something I'm not suppose to say, or tell people stuff that should not be said to other people. 27 years down the line, this thing has gotten myself into trouble. Here is what happened, I used to brag about how much I can drink and how on my 25th birthday i allegedly drank enough to send myself to the hospital to this one group of friends. And then I was talking about all the shots i had in the past and all and the drinking debauchery in Vancouver.. now they want me to do a drink off over the weekend.. wonderful because "they never saw it, it's only stories". Well liver, i apologize in advance for making you work overtime. I got a reputation to defend.. (i'm going to regret this)

I thought that the brain learns through errors and experiences. I guess I'm not one of those.. i think if i was an endangered specie, i would probably be weeded off, nature vs nurture.. damn you Darwin

Updates

It seems it has been ages since I have last posted something on this blog. To be honest with you, not alot has been happening until lately. The best friend is in the hospital, and it was quite rough on me, mostly because I couldn't do anything to help her. I felt totally helpless and useless, seeing her suffering at the hospital was killing me. I tried calling a few people that works at the hospital but they all gave me the same speech. At least she's going to be discharged soon, but I truely hate this feeling.

Work evaluation is coming up soon. The problem is I don't know how to tell my manager that a) I do not want to continue to work in QA (the only reason why i have accepted this is to be a transition, a period for me to recover from the 2009 downfall) and b) I have no intention of staying in Montreal (see 5 year plan in previous post). The hardest part is trying to determine the objective for the upcoming year (how about, finding a job in development and leave montreal???). I don't want to burn any bridges here, nor do I want to corner myself and be stuck here for another 3 years. Ah decision, decisions decisions